STURGEON TIME FOR RADICAL THINKING ON CARE SERVICE
First Minister backs plans for massive shake-up of system
Nicola Sturgeon has backed plans for the most radical shake-up of the care home system in decades.
The First Minister has “huge sympathy” for the creation of a national care service, which could lead to greater public control and ownership.
After the Daily Record urged MSPs to support the proposal, she said: “It’s an example of how we need to be prepared to rethink old ways of doing things.”
Gary Smith of the GMB trade union, which represents care staff, said: “The Record’s intervention has been vital, pressuring politicians and raising this into the public consciousness.”
The Covid-19 death toll in Scots care homes has become the biggest scandal of the pandemic. At 1818, it now outstrips those in hospitals.
A lack of PPE has been a major problem, as was moving patients from hospitals to care homes without testing them for Covid.
However, although a likely public inquiry will examine these failings, politicians believe wider reform of the sector is overdue.
Low pay, underfunding and collective bargaining are all up for debate– as is care home ownership.
Homes are run by private firms, not-for-profit organisations and local authorities, and critics of the status quo want the system to look more like the publicly-owned NHS.
At Holyrood, senior SNP MSP Angela Constance backed a national care service to replace the current system, saying: “I am in support of the establishment of a National Care Service that is on a par with our NHS, with a focus on not-for-profit care.
“I do not want care services run like hospitals, with councils cut out of the loop but I want a clear national plan and infrastructure that builds services around the everyday needs of people in their own homes or in
their own community, with clear lines of accountability and redress.”
She added: “This pandemic has shone a light on serious concerns about some private care homes and while I would not want to tar all private providers with the same brush, profiteering at the expense of care cannot be tolerated.
“My concern, given how some private care providers operate, is that millions of pounds of public money is taken from the care sector into the financial sector.”
Asked about a National Care Service by Constance, Sturgeon said: “I’ve got huge sympathy with this. It’s an example of how we need to be prepared to rethink old ways of doing things and contemplate potentially new and potentially better ways of doing things.
“I hope that we may see some cross-party willingness to look at the idea of a national care service. There are huge complexities and challenges associated with that, and none of us should underplay that, but there will be a whole range of ways in which we want to rethink how we’ve done things in the past.”
Figures last month showed the number of homes in the voluntary sector with outbreaks stood at 38 per cent. However, the number was 69 per cent for private facilities.
Over 20 residents at Whitehills care home in East Kilbride, operated by Thistle Healthcare, have died.
The private HC-One operator also said a total of 207 residents had died in their Scottish facilities.
Smith said: “A national plan for social care is essential and the door is wide open for the Scottish Government to launch this. The First Minister will find thousands of GMB members in care are ready to shape and support it’s development.
“Change won’t be easy but the journey needs to start immediately.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “Scottish Labour has long argued that we need a Scottish Care Service, so it’s encouraging to see Angela Constance and Nicola Sturgeon expressing support. We will be glad to work with them on making this a reality.”
Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents the independent sector, said: “The creation of a National Care Service should not be based on the NHS model. Doing so fails to recognise the differences between social care and healthcare, which require distinct forms of support.
“The creation of a National Care Service would pose significant challenges in what type of care it would deliver. At the heart of social care is the importance of giving people choice. A one size fits all model has no place in services which are about the whole of life.”